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View Full Version : Anyone here own or rent a commercial party tent?



Brian Elfert
08-04-2012, 8:54 PM
I bought a used commercial party tent for a reasonably good deal for the high power hobby rocketry events I attend. Anyone here know anything about them?

Mine is a Eureka Elite 20x20. I need to get new stakes because the seller only gave me some 1" rebar stakes with no heads. I'm trying to decide if can go with 3/4" stakes 30" long or if I need 1" stakes that are 30" long. Eureka sells the tent with 1" diameter 24" long stakes if you buy the complete tent. I prefer 3/4" if they would work because they would be easier to pound into the desert floor. The stakes used for this size tent are massive no matter what size they are!

Jerome Stanek
08-05-2012, 8:20 AM
I work for a trade show company and we use the 3/4 stakes most of the time even on some 30x80 tents easier to pound in and easier to pull out. We also use water barrels when it is only going to be 1or 2 days

Brian Elfert
08-05-2012, 10:46 AM
Thank you for your reply. I'll go with 3/4" stakes then. Eureka wasn't any help really. All of their sales go through local reps. Even the simplest question has to go to the reps. I didn't want to call my local rep since I likely would not buy stakes or anything else through them.

Craig D Peltier
03-20-2013, 10:27 AM
I bought a used commercial party tent for a reasonably good deal for the high power hobby rocketry events I attend. Anyone here know anything about them?

Mine is a Eureka Elite 20x20. I need to get new stakes because the seller only gave me some 1" rebar stakes with no heads. I'm trying to decide if can go with 3/4" stakes 30" long or if I need 1" stakes that are 30" long. Eureka sells the tent with 1" diameter 24" long stakes if you buy the complete tent. I prefer 3/4" if they would work because they would be easier to pound into the desert floor. The stakes used for this size tent are massive no matter what size they are!

I used to rent small to large tents for 11 years. The 3/4 stakes 36 inches is what we used in LA. Water barrels if couldnt stake down or in desert sand. Sometimes the water barrels can get ridiculous as far as the amount need by building and safety. I have seen up to 6 per leg. Wind causes havoc with tents since there large sails. Banners we used to cut holes in them so wind could go through. I have seen cement being used to hold them down as well, but stakes work better.

Brian Elfert
03-20-2013, 12:28 PM
I ended up buying 3/4" stakes. I also bought a 36" long masonry bit to drill holes for the stakes in the desert soil. My friend has a really old, but powerful, Craftsman drill we used to drill the holes. The bad part is the heads of the cheap Chinese stakes are already starting to break off after just two uses of the stakes.

The big tent didn't work out as well in the wind as I would have hoped. We were lucky not to have a wind storm in the desert this year. It is a rare year we don't have a wind storm at least one of the four days.

Joe Angrisani
03-20-2013, 3:46 PM
....for the high power hobby rocketry events I attend....the desert floor.....


....It is a rare year we don't have a wind storm at least one of the four days.

OK. Enough is enough. I'm threadjacking....

What kind of stuff are you building? What motors are you using?

And where in "the desert" do you run off from Minneapolis to?

I have gone to local club launches a few times. The Fort Collins club to my north does a spring and fall weekend that has a pretty good turnout. Some pretty cool stuff last time I went, from 15' single motor V2 rockets, to a 9-booster plus main engine Delta II that was probably 25' long. The Colorado Springs club to my south seems to have smaller gatherings, but they pride themselves on having a launch site over 9,000' MSL.

Jerry Bruette
03-20-2013, 4:45 PM
I'm with Joe. No pictures, didn't happen.:D

Brian Elfert
03-20-2013, 4:48 PM
We drive all the way from Minneapolis to Reno every year to launch in the Black Rock Desert. This year we are going out to Reno twice to two different events.

The rockets we build are from 8 to 20 feet tall ranging from 4" to 12" in diameter. Motors are ammonium perchlorate.

Brian Elfert
03-20-2013, 4:58 PM
Here is a photo from the desert of my rocket from around 2007 or so. Rocket is 18 feet tall and the launch tower is 20 feet tall.

Joe Angrisani
03-20-2013, 6:04 PM
Wicked!!!

Black Rock, huh? You don't hang around for Burning Man, do ya?? :eek:

When are the events this year? (Always looking for a Westfalia roadtrip.....)

Brian Elfert
03-20-2013, 8:06 PM
Black Rock, huh? You don't hang around for Burning Man, do ya?? :eek:

When are the events this year? (Always looking for a Westfalia roadtrip.....)

No, I don't go to Burning Man. First rocket event I am going to is LDRS July 18 to 22 and the second is BALLS Sept 20 to 22. The event organizers do charge every attendee due to BLM regulations. (Government charges for each attendee.)

Jerry Bruette
03-20-2013, 8:08 PM
Interesting hobby, way different than the Estes stuff I played with in junior high.

What materials are the components of the rocket made from? Bodytube, fins, nosecone.

Didn't know what ammonium perchlorate was so I read an article about it. How do you safely handle stuff like that? Are the engines preloaded/made or do you do that yourself?

Brian Elfert
03-20-2013, 9:21 PM
That particular rocket the body tubes are made from heavy paper tubes wrapped in fiberglass. The fins and nosecone are made from fiberglass. The rocket engines use the same fuel as the space shuttle boosters. A lot of rockets at this size are made from aluminum.

We make most of the motors ourselves. Not really that dangerous at all.